Forum News

Health IT and New York State's Health Care Transformation Strategy

On January 27, The NYS Forum IT Corporate Roundtable provided a platform for Rachel Block to speak to the Health IT and New York State's Health Care Transformation Strategy. The audience comprised nearly 80 ITCR members and select representatives of NYS Chief Information Officers.

Rachel Block, Deputy Commissioner for Health IT Transformation, NYS Department of Health is the lead on New York State's effort to adopt wide-scale changes to Health IT and encourage wide-scale adoption of technologies, common practices and guidelines. Deputy Commissioner Block has overseen development and implementation of New York's statewide health information technology strategy since May 2009. She was the founding executive director for the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC), a statewide multi-stakeholder organization committed to advancing health information technology adoption and use in New York from 2006-2009. Increased efficiencies, effectiveness, operational improvements, quality, performance and accountability are common themes that are being heard with increased frequency in New York State. These same themes are the underpinning of the goal to transform the nation's health information technology system. Deputy Commissioner Block shared her perspective on how New York's Health IT initiative has evolved. Specifics of her presentation included the challenges, implications and ongoing needs associated with the IT infrastructure, linking IT and programmatic operations, federal-level engagement, considerations for funding, shared resources and services. To view the presentation go to http://www.nysforum.org/events/ITCR_1_27_2012/